This Bluegill season has started off with a bang. Yesterday I located a few good specimens and convinced them to bite the Berkeley Gulp 1in Minnow. Small fry were skipping out of the water like miniature porpoises and that bait worked wonderfully. So today I ventured back out and decided to try a new bait, the Nikko Pinworm. Skinny and about the same length of the fry, I mounted it up on the 1g Cultiva Mushi jighead. Now a certain You Tube fisherman recommended this combination and nicknamed it the Bluegill Killer. His assessment is correct, I hammered them today on this combination and below are some pics of today’s catch.
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Tipped with a Nibble, it was lights out for the Gills. The ABU Real Finesse Eradicator spooled with the Sunline Braid had the hook set for me by the time I felt the vibration from the strike. This braid is over a year old and I have not even reversed it once since spooling it up. Water clarity was terrible so no leader was needed.
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Other species thought it looked appetizing, and put a bend in my rod they did.
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Everyone is hungry right now. Water temps have warmed to 70 degrees…. the magic number in my lakes. I kept several for the freezer, and brought home one female for an egg check.
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It is definitely time to start looking for beds and I suspect this one was in her bedding area. She was caught in the same spot as the Crappie pictured above, and she was on the nest for sure as eggs were coming from her onto the boat deck. I believe they (Gills and Crappie) may spawn in the same areas. So anyway give that Nikko Pinworm a look, it is small and skinny but I caught over 50 fish today on just one bait, and it is still in good shape. I am not sponsored or affiliated with this company, just reporting on a bait that worked for me.

